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Chapter 34 - Off The Beaten Track (CF)
The tension in the air was palpable, Tubba felt. There were so many acrimonious feelings floating around: Chubba to Tubba, vice versa, Paralus to Clubbette, Mubba to Tubba, Tubba to Clubbette. His teal twin, his scales sparkling with the healthiness his luxurious life afforded him, began to stride toward Tubba, who dropped into a battle position, knees slightly bent, left fist clenched, right holding his club. Chubba stopped in front of Tubba, casually crossing his arms as if he was posing for a photoshoot, his expression confident. This was a Clubba who thought he had every right to be there. “Tubba,” Chubba acknowledged. “We meet again.” “Haven’t seen you for a few weeks,” Tubba didn’t know why Chubba was here. The Kingdom had never meant anything to him, not like it did to Tubba. Tubba felt he owed it to every Clubba to take back their rightful home, Chubba could care less, as long as he earned the buckets of money, the heaps of money, the truckloads of money from the Glitz Pit. “But some of your friends have,” Tubba followed Chubba’s gaze, to the battling former Glitz Pit brawlers. “I freed them. You owe me, Tubba. Without me, you would’ve never felled the Place of the Unruly.” Chubba turned around and looked at the masses of busted stone just visible beyond the dunes. “You wouldn’t be here, fighting this battle, right now.” There was something in Chubba’s voice that made Tubba positive that his twin was telling the truth. “We owe you nothing,” he snarled despite his feeling of Chubba’s honesty. “It’s partially your fault this happened in the first place.” Chubba shrugged, as if it didn’t mean much to him. “I guessed you’d say that. But it’s ironic you’re willing to forgive Clubbette, who played a bigger role in the loss of the Kingdom, but not me. Double standards, is this?” Their light blue half-sister winced, as if she didn’t want to be swept up in the argument. “I haven’t forgiven her!” Tubba bristled at this misinterpretation, causing Clubbette to cringe again. “I was waiting for her to double cross us, which she has already!” Tubba took a step forward to his twin: “This has waited long enough!” This was the moment. This was the last battle. The fight, himself against his twin, the one that had defined his life. Be it in the Clubba Castle at fourteen, with the subjects respecting Chubba and seeing him with the greater potential to be King, be it in the Glitz Pit at fifteen, with Chubba making a name for himself and dooming Tubba to the shadow, be it at Gusty Gulch at twenty-four, back in the Glitz Pit at twenty-eight. Chubba had always been against him, more than anyone else. His twin was against him. “I have no intention of fighting you right now, Tubba,” Chubba sidestepped away from his twin. “Why don’t we focus on our half-sister?” Chubba spoke as if he was tempting a thought to a close friend, before pushing past Tubba and glaring at Clubbette. “Whose side are you on, Clubbette? Don’t you think it would be prudent to leave Tubba?” Clubbette took a glance over to Paralus, where the orange Clubba was standing, tight-lipped. Her voice came out remarkably clear: “Not anymore. I can’t fault him for the mistakes his - our - father committed, valuing his throne over me. No. I’m a Clubba, and I’m fighting alongside the Clubbas.” “That goes for me too,” Mubba rasped out, glaring at Tubba. “I’ll never fight by your side, Tubba, but I’ll fight by the side of the Clubbas.” Tubba didn’t care to point out that allying with the Clubbas meant allying with him, he was too happy. Two of the most unlikeliest Clubbas to support them... were going to. Tubba could feel it - Clubbette would go alongside him, because losing Paralus’ friendship was too valuable to her... something was going on with her and Paralus. Tubba wondered what it was. Chubba looked away, and to Tubba’s satisfaction he realized that Chubba had not expected Clubbette to declare her support behind the Clubbas, or at least, not in a sincere and genuine way. “Then why haven’t you told them everything?” Chubba challenged after a moment’s pause. “You know more than you’re giving on.” “That’s right,” Clubbette glared at her half-brother. “Tubba,” she turned to her other half-brother. “Ludwig has a Muth. It’s his secret weapon.” She spoke the words so quickly and bluntly that it took Tubba a moment to internalize it. “A... Muth?” The large creature sprang to Tubba’s mind. They towered over a Clubba easily, some reaching heights as high as twenty feet. They had a box shape, often coloured brown or gray, with four large feet that could squish something the size of a Clubba, as well as bulldoze through a Clubba without even noticing - such was their barbaric strength. The powerful muscles rippled across their body, but their weight was enough that even without their muscles, they would be a formidable opponent. A trunk grew from the top of their body, serving as both the nose and mouth, not unlike a Snifit. Furthermore, these creatures were very irritable and easily angered. If Ludwig had a Muth... it could annihilate the whole Clubban army before much could be done. “A Muth.” Clubbette confirmed. She glared at Chubba, who was glaring right back. “And I’m going to help you get rid of it. I know exactly where it’s being kept. Ludwig only intended to use it if you guys got to the Castle, as a secret weapon of sorts.” She began to walk toward the Castle, sidestepping various battles. “Let’s go the long way around,” she pointed across the sands. The Clubba Castle was surrounded by a high wall, but all the royals knew that if they were get around to the graveyard, directly behind the Castle, there would be a way in through the back. “I’m in!” Paralus was quick to leap to Clubbette’s side. “Mubba, Mother, you two need to stay here and help organize the troops.” Paralus’ mother nodded, and Mubba, with a final glare at Tubba, went to stand by his mother’s side. The Clubbiths were high ranking enough in the old monarchy that Tubba knew that most Clubbas would listen to the orders of Mubba - despite his own trepidation of handing the reins of the army over to a Clubba who had intended to kill him just moments before. Turning over to Chubba, making sure his twin felt the power of his glare, Tubba gave him a challenge: “What are you doing, Chubba? Running away again? Not getting your hands dirty?” “Going back to the Glitz Pit.” Chubba shrugged, beginning to walk away. He called back from a few paces away: “Yoshi will be awaiting my return. You’re not welcome back.” Tubba snorted with derision, easily loud enough for Chubba to hear. Not even bothering to dignify Chubba’s words with a reply, Tubba waved his club around his head as a signal for Clubbette and Paralus to assemble behind him. “Are we sure three Clubbas are sufficient to take on a Muth?” Paralus asked as he came up behind Tubba. Tubba had decided that no, three Clubbas were not sufficient to take on a Muth, because Clubbette was unaware of the essentials of the Muth - all she knew was that it was a larger than average Muth. So he dragged the other friends out of their scraps - Aaron, Shazam, Sarge, Dibby, Xavier and Gamma - to accompany them to locate and take on the Muth. The graveyard was huge - millenia upon millenia of Clubbas had been buried there, upon the collapse of the first Clubba Castle. The oldest monuments were merely weathered black granite tablets in the very centre of the monument, but since the time of the collapse of the first Castle, the graveyard had expanded to contain hundreds of thousands of Clubbas, each marked with at least a headstone, but others were worthy of life-sized statues, epitaphs of greatness, inscriptions of the events of their life. Tubba knew he would have to pick one for Gonzales when it was all done - they were preserving the dark blue Clubba’s body on the SS Mahruav, to be picked up once the Kingdom was reclaimed. Just south of the graveyard, closer to the Castle, were the royal tombs, dug deep underground. Each monarch earned a separate one, and their immediate family were usually buried together, close by, in a different tomb. Construction began at the beginning of the reign, and the lavishness of the tomb was usually dependent on the age of the monarch when they ascended to the throne. A young monarch would get a grand tomb, an elderly monarch would get a smaller one, purely because of the time required to build one before the monarch passed away. Clubbette led the way along the southern edge of the graveyard, before opening the gate that led into the royal tombs. The tombs were surrounded by a second wall, the south edge of which doubling up as part of the wall that surrounded the Clubba Castle. There were typically guards positioned on the red sands to dissuade tomb robbers, but as they slipped into the complex, there were no guards in sight. Tubba shuddered a little as they stepped into the walled area. Although the area was directly behind the Clubba Castle, very few Clubbas ever travelled into the complex out of respect and tradition - the guards were an elite group, called the “Deathly Silent” guards, forbidden to speak about their hours guarding the tombs, and the architects were always the same group as well. No Deathly Silent guards were present, Tubba was not surprised - why should Ludwig care if the tombs of the monarchs and their families got robbed? He was, however, surprised to see Clubbette taking a bee-line for the more recent tombs, closer to the outer wall. “Where are we going?” “Your - our - father’s tomb. The Muth’s being kept in there,” Clubbette answered, stopping in front of two large golden doors that led into the sands. Tubba felt anger surge through him - Clubbette knew how important tombs were to royal Clubbas - to disturb one after death would be a sacrilegious offence. “I may be willing to work with you, Tubba,” Clubbette cautioned, “but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven our father.” “You managed to fit a Muth in here?” Shazam questioned - the doors were only about ten feet high above the ground, barely large enough for an adolescent Muth to fit, let alone a fully-grown, larger than average Muth. “With difficulty,” Clubbette snorted. “It helps that Ludwig’s not bad at magic.” It was then that Tubba realized that the locks and seals on the tomb were gone, a clear sign that it had been opened. “Now, it should be sleeping - it’s always sleeping - in the main area of the tomb. All we have to do is -” Before Clubbette could finish her thought, an ear splitting roar shook the ground beneath their very feet, making rocks and loose granules of sand shake away from the gilded gold entrance to his father’s tomb. Tubba leapt away from the tomb, realizing that something else had roused the beast lurking below. It felt as if the earth was heaving under it’s own command, quaking and shaking with a natural disaster, trembling like Tubba’s own legs - he hoped it was a response to the tremors of the earth, and not fear. He could see his friends were doing all they could to stay on their feet - only Gamma and Dibby, floating above the earth, escaped the shaking. With a second roar that seemed to echo around the world, the golden doors to the tomb were thrown off their hinges, sand spraying everywhere, the first flying toward Paralus and Clubbette, and the second toward Tubba. Tubba managed vault over the second door, and Paralus and Clubbette, using their combined strength, stopped the first one. As Tubba managed to look at the source of the commotion, meeting the burning red eyes of the Muth, he could see, darting away over the walls of the complex, a wand in his right hand, the King of the Koopas. There was no time to dwell on it, Tubba cleared it from his mind: the Muth let out another scream, spittle flying everywhere, towering at twenty-five feet high.